The market for shared accommodation in Spain continues to grow. In the second quarter of 2026, the supply of rooms nationwide increased by twelve per cent. At the same time, demand is also rising. A room is particularly expensive in Barcelona, while Jaén and Badajoz are at the other end of the scale, with an average price of €250. For many tenants, sharing a flat is therefore becoming an alternative to having their own home, which is increasingly unaffordable.
Spain Expat Press Editorial Team
by Marlon Gallego Bosbach
Spain’s housing problems are becoming increasingly apparent in the shared accommodation market. As more and more people turn to renting a room in a shared flat, prices continue to rise in many cities. According to the latest data from the property portal Idealista, the supply of rooms in shared accommodation increased by twelve per cent in the second quarter of 2026 compared with the same period last year. At the same time, interest in this type of accommodation also rose by twelve per cent.
This creates a contrast between two developments: although there are more rooms available on the market, more and more people are simultaneously looking for affordable accommodation.
A room in a shared flat costs an average of €425
Across Spain, tenants now have to pay around €425 per month on average for a room in shared accommodation. This represents an increase of around one per cent over the past year.
At first glance, renting a room in shared accommodation still appears considerably cheaper than renting an entire flat. For many people, however, sharing a home is therefore no longer simply a lifestyle choice, but a financial necessity.
Students, young professionals and people moving to another city for education or work are particularly reliant on this type of accommodation. At the same time, a look at individual cities shows just how significant the differences across Spain have become.
Barcelona is by far the most expensive
Barcelona is at the top of the list. A room in shared accommodation costs an average of €600 per month there. This puts the Catalan capital well above the Spanish average. Compared with the cheapest cities in Spain, tenants in Barcelona are paying around €350 more per month.
Other popular cities are also becoming increasingly expensive. In Palma and Madrid, the average is around €550 per month. In San Sebastián, tenants pay around €500, while prices in Bilbao and Málaga are approximately €450.
Other cities with relatively high prices include Pamplona at around €440, while Santa Cruz de Tenerife comes in at approximately €430. In Vitoria, the average is €420, while prices in Ceuta stand at around €415. Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and Girona each average approximately €407.
For people on an average income, this means that even a single room in large and particularly popular cities can now consume a significant portion of their monthly budget.
Jaén and Badajoz are considerably cheaper
The situation is very different in some smaller cities. Jaén and Badajoz are among the cheapest cities in Spain, with an average monthly price of €250. They are followed by Cáceres at around €260 and Ciudad Real at approximately €270.
The difference compared with Barcelona is enormous. There is a €350 per month gap between the average price of €250 in Jaén and €600 in Barcelona. Over the course of a year, that amounts to a difference of around €4,200 – for a single room alone.
Current listings also show that rooms in Jaén can sometimes be found for even less. On Idealista, for example, there are currently listings starting at around €175 to €200 per month, although the furnishings, location, rental period and conditions vary from property to property.
Supply is growing – but competition remains fierce
However, more rooms do not automatically mean that those looking for housing find accommodation more easily, as demand is also rising. In the second quarter of 2026, the number of interested parties per available room also increased by twelve percent nationwide. In some cities, competition has intensified significantly.
The trend in Ceuta is particularly striking. There, the number of interested parties per room surged by a full 123 percent within a year. Competition in Girona increased by 102 percent. Next in line are Zaragoza with 96 percent, Soria with 89 percent, and Huelva with 80 percent.
Barcelona also saw a significant increase in competition: the number of interested parties per room rose by 22 percent there.
Half of the supply is concentrated in four cities
Another issue is the market’s strong regional concentration. Around half of all shared-apartment rooms available in Spain are located in just four cities—or markets: Madrid, Valencia, Barcelona, and Seville. Madrid accounts for 23 percent of the total supply, Valencia for 15 percent, Barcelona for 11 percent, and Seville for 3 percent.
Consequently, the supply of rooms in shared apartments is particularly large in places where many people study, work, or hope for better career opportunities. At the same time, demand is enormous. This partly explains why prices remain high despite the growing supply.
Why are apartments increasingly being divided into individual rooms?
This trend is driven by more than just the housing shortage faced by tenants; renting out individual rooms can also be financially attractive for property owners. Instead of renting an entire apartment to a single tenant, a property can be divided into multiple rooms, each of which is then rented out separately. This approach can potentially result in higher total rental income.
According to Fotocasa, the average yield from renting out individual rooms is around 7.6 percent, whereas traditional apartment rentals yield approximately 5.9 percent. This trend is therefore also of interest to property owners.
Government plans stricter regulation of room rentals
The growing trend of renting out individual rooms is now sparking political debate. A key point of contention is whether subdividing apartments into multiple rooms allows them to bypass the regulations governing standard rental properties. Critics fear that landlords could use this practice to circumvent existing rent controls.
The Spanish government is therefore working on stricter regulation of room rentals. One of the aims is to prevent the circumvention of rent control rules through the subdivision of apartments into numerous individual rooms. This could lead to the current practice being more closely aligned in the future with the regulations governing standard rental apartments.
Finding an apartment is becoming a problem, especially for students
The timing of current developments is also significant. With the upcoming start of the new academic year, the demand for rooms in university towns traditionally rises. Students, in particular, face a difficult situation: renting a private apartment is barely affordable in many cities, while rooms in shared apartments are also becoming increasingly expensive.
In Barcelona, for example, 600 euros for a single room can already represent a significant monthly expense. Anyone who also has to cover groceries, transport, tuition fees, and other costs can quickly reach the limits of their budget.
In cities like Jaén, however, the situation appears much more relaxed.
Spain is experiencing an ever-widening price gap
The latest figures thus reveal a marked disparity in the Spanish housing market: an average of 600 euros in Barcelona compared to 250 euros in Jaén or Badajoz. Consequently, a room in a shared apartment in Barcelona costs, on average, more than twice as much as in the country’s most affordable cities.
For those looking for housing, the choice of location can therefore make a huge difference. Anyone not tied to a specific major city can save several thousand euros a year by moving to a more affordable region.
However, even the more affordable cities are not entirely immune to price pressure. Interest in shared-apartment rooms is rising nationwide, and competition for available rooms is intensifying in some cities.
The housing shortage is reaching the next level
Ultimately, developments in the shared-housing market illustrate just how much the housing situation in Spain has changed. What was once a stopgap solution for many is increasingly becoming a permanent alternative to having one’s own home.
While the supply is growing, demand is rising as well. At the same time, more and more property owners are recognizing the economic benefits of renting out rooms. For tenants, this creates a paradoxical situation: there are more rooms available in shared apartments than a year ago—yet the search for housing does not automatically become any easier.
Financial pressure remains high, particularly in Barcelona, Madrid, and other popular cities. And as long as affordable, standard housing remains scarce, the demand for shared accommodation is likely to continue rising.
The Spanish housing market is thus facing a new challenge: it is no longer just entire apartments that are becoming scarce and expensive—individual rooms, too, are increasingly becoming sought-after and costly living spaces.
